Opening Face-OffTowson suffered a 12-4 setback at No. 17 Duke on Saturday, March 16. Four different Tigers scored in the loss. UMBC is 2-4 on the year and coming off a 16-11 win at High Point on Saturday. Today’s game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. and can be heard live on the Towson Sports Network on www.towsontigers.com with Spiro Morekas and former Tiger midfielder Hunter Lochte calling the action.

Updating the Tigers
Towson’s up-and-down year continued with a 12-4 loss at No. 17 Duke on Saturday. Sophomore Justin Mabus scored his first goal of the season. Classmates Cory Dobyns (1g, 1a) and Ben McCarty and junior Andrew Hodgson all had one goal each for the Tigers. Senior Andew Wascavage made 14 saves.

Scouting the Retrievers
UMBC picked up only its second win of the season this past weekend. The Retrievers began the year losing four of their first five games by a combined score of 60-37. Scott Jones leads UMBC in goals (12) and points (15) on the year. Joe Lustgarten’s seven assists are tops for the Retrievers. Adam Cohen has started all four games played in goal but Wes DiRito has a better goals-against-average (12.44) and save percentage (.472) in his three games played. The Retrievers are being outscored by nearly a hat trick a game but have matched their opponents in man-up goals (nine). UMBC is losing the ground ball (203-179) and turnover (99-112) battles and wins only 46.8 percent of face-offs. The Retrievers are also frequently penalized (28, 22:30).
Towson-UMBC Series HistoryThe series between these teams is one of Towson’s longest-running rivalries. The teams first met in 1970 and with the exception of 1986, have played every year since. The Tigers lead the all-time series 28-15 and opened it with five straight wins. Towson’s longest win streak in the rivalry is 12 games (1984 to 1996). However, UMBC has won four of the last six meetings. The Tigers’ largest margin of victory has been 12 goals twice (21-9 on April 23, 1994; 27-15 on April 19, 1996). Sixteen times the games have been decided by three goals or less, including eight of the last 10 games and each of the last three.